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Le Meurtre d'Edmund Teale (Miklo)
Le Meurtre d'Edmund Teale ("De moord op Edmund Teale" in Dutch, "The Death of Edmund Teale" in English) is a Biggles comic strip story which was first published in Biggles alias W.E. JOHNS - L'album du centenaire, a book published by Miklo in 2000 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Biggles. The story was by Michel Oleffe and artwork was by Eric Loutte. Synopsis The comic strip is an adaptation of the Johns short story The Case of the Murdered Apprentice, which was part of the Biggles Air Detective anthology. Plot The comic strip has the same general plot outline and characters as the original but there are significant changes in the details. *The preambular discussion between Biggles and Raymond about smuggling by air is omitted. *The preliminary investigative roles assigned by Biggles are changed: **Bertie is asked to check out the Bond street shop (not, as in the original, Biggles and Ginger). Biggles says the checking out the chic shops on Bond Street fits his profile. **Biggles and Ginger performs the photo-reconnaissance flight, not Algy. Biggles and Ginger do the mission with a Harvard T-6 and not an Auster. **Algy is sent to gather information on the ground. He gets information about Lurgens and his address by telephoning the post office at Buckbury and not by visiting it in person as Biggles did in the original. Algy speaks to one of the post office staff and not Mr Green. The latter will turn up only later. *Mrs Vanester's Bond Street shop sells jewelry and not hats. The contraband being smuggled is gemstones and not birds of paradise feathers. The trade name Madame Karena is not used. *For the visit to Larford Hall, all four of the Air Police crew go. Algy is not left behind in the office as in the original. *Mrs Vanester has a butler, like in the original, but here he is given a name, Hiram. *There is an exchange of gunfire between Lurgens and Biggles but, unlike the original, neither are wounded. *But Mrs Vanester does draw a gun on Biggles in this story! She is shot in the arm by Algy. *The uninjured Lurgens jumps out of the window and makes a break for his aircraft, *In the original, Bertie was to have immobilised Lurgens' aircraft. This job is given to Ginger in the adaptation. Lurgens tries to take off in the aircraft but Ginger has sabotaged it and it catches fire and explodes. This scene, of course, never took place in the original as Lurgens was wounded inside the house. *The aircraft used by Lurgens is an Waco Standard Cabin biplane and not a Fokker. *The character of Sergeant Winskip does not appear. Characters *Biggles *Algy Lacey *Ginger Hebblethwaite *Bertie Lissie *Air Commodore Raymond *Edmund Teale *Mrs Karena Vanester - in this adaptation, the first name is not mentioned. The Dutch version gives her name more properly as Mrs Van Ester. Her background in Indonesia is not mentioned because it is not needed: jewels and not feathers from Indonesia are the contraband. *Rudolf Lurgens - the first name is not mentioned. His background as a pilot in an airline which served Indonesia is not mentioned. *Mr Green *Hiram - Mrs Vanester's butler Aircraft *North American T-6 Harvard *Waco Standard Cabin Biplane Category:Derivative works